A Christmas Miracle
by ASnackForAlways
Summary: (Pre-canon) Harvey finds out that Donna thinks he's a terrible gift giver so he rigs the office Secret Santa to try to prove her wrong. A part of the SS fic exchange 2019


**It's been an honor to be a part of the Secret Santa fic exchange this year. Thank you for loving this fic. And I'm reposting it here.. Thank you for the support! :) -Jane**

For years, Harvey didn't like this time of the year. The snow, he could deal with. But the festivities and the rush that came with the holidays? He wasn't a fan of that.

After his workplace started resembling Santa's village, his mood had changed for worse. But he endured it. Just like he did for the last 12 years. He endured it because of her.

She had been a part of his life for the last 12 years. Birthdays, work anniversaries, holidays. She has always been there.

People always wondered what was going on between them. The truth is, he's never known either.

His friendship with Donna is something he has always valued the most, but lately there was something, deep inside his heart, that kept crawling to the surface. He just didn't know what it was but he knew that he hasn't ever felt that way.

Yes, Donna was the one who was always there for him, but this year was different.

This year their relationship has hit a rough patch.

It all started when Donna got almost convicted of a felony. To this day, whenever he thinks about that time, his breathing intensifies. Just the thought of Donna behind bars sends shivers down his spine.

He knows that their relationship is somewhat indescribable, but he still feels that she's the most important person in his life. Does he feel something for her? Yes. Is it love? He doesn't know for sure, but what he knows is that he wouldn't be able to spend his life without her.

It just wouldn't be the same.

He once got a taste of what his life would be like without her, he vowed that after she came back he would never let her go again.

Yet, here he is, sitting in his office, staring at the door frozen in place. Why? Simply, because he was too scared to express his feelings to her.

You see, yesterday when Donna's case got dismissed they had a little celebration at her place and he said some things. Not that he wanted to. He told her that he loved her and then he left. As much as he tried to cover it up and deny it, he couldn't. It's just something that he can never take back

So why did he leave?

Was he a coward? Damn right he was. He couldn't help it though. For years he was trying to suppress his feelings for Donna, telling himself that she doesn't want him. That she would never settle for someone like him. Broken like him.

The thing is, Donna already left him. She went to work for Louis. That's what she told him before leaving his office.

_That_ was almost a year ago.

Since then a lot of things have happened. Mike was arrested for being a fraud - he got out not too long after, but before that Donna came back to him. He still doesn't know what he did to deserve that, but whether he knew it or not, he was a mess without her. She made him a better person.

****  
Reminiscing about last year's loneliness, Harvey gulps down the remaining amount of his Macallan 18 before going home.

As he makes his way towards the elevators, he overhears his name coming from the direction of Rachel's office. "Harvey's the opposite." Wondering what she's talking about with Rachel he decides to step a little closer and listen to the rest of the conversation.  
"Awful gift giver. Heart's in the right place, but after all these years I realized that if I want to enjoy my present, I'm gonna have to buy it myself."

"Do you still do that?"

"Got these babies last year for Christmas." He can see her pointing to her earrings.

Having heard enough, Harvey finally makes his way home. All the while contemplating on somehow changing Donna's mind.

Ever since he could remember, the firm - more specially Louis and Rachel - have organized all kinds of events during this time of the year. From various charity events to work did it all. This year will be different though. For some reason Louis has decided to bring back the Secret Santa gift exchange.

They did that a long time ago and he got Jessica. Yeah, it was a weird experience and Donna teased him about it ever since.

"You do know that expensive doesn't necessarily mean that it's good." Was her remark when she heard the price tag. He dismissed her by replying "Really? Tell that to your closet." That earned him a glare.

Now he's here, in his office waiting for Rachel to come up to him with the names, so he can get it over with.

He could see her looking through the names in the hat and smile, as she makes her way from the direction of Louis' office.

"You know why I'm here, so let's get this over with." She places the hat before him so that he can pick out one of the names.

After he fishes out the paper, he unfolds it and frowns. It's not the person he hoped to get.

Rachel smirks. "Something wrong there, Harvey?"

He looks at her. "No. Why?"

She raises her eyebrow. After a while he gives in. "I got Mike."

"And?"

"I don't want him. I wanted someone else. I need..."

Before he can finish his sentence, Rachel interrupts him. "You do know that you can't change it? Right?" She's still smirking.

Harvey nods. "But you can make an exception, right?" It's his turn to smirk now. "Seeing as I have someone you'd like to have. And from your smirk I assume that you have Donna. So, why don't we just switch? No one will know about it."

"No." Rachel denies.

Harvey raises his eyebrows. They stare at each other for what feels like minutes. No one wants to back down, until..

"Fine. We can switch." She gives him a warning look before continuing. "Don't make me regret this, Harvey!" With that she leaves him alone in the confines of his office.

His confused expression goes unnoticed as she rounds the corner. She smirks. So obvious.

**DAY ONE:**

A few weeks passed since Harvey switched with Rachel and got Donna for the gift exchange.

After Rachel left his office, he immediately began setting his plans into motion. It took quite some patience, but he got it done in a week.

They have known each other for 13 years and he wanted to acknowledge that with something more than just their usual dinner at Del Posto. So, when the opportunity arose with the Secret Santa, he jumped right on it.

It was December, which meant that it was finally time to start his gift giving.  
For the next thirteen days, he would try and sneak a gift onto her desk. Each day representing one year they have spent together. He just hopes that it will go smoothly. He can't screw up. Not now, when he has something important to prove to her.

For all these years he was too blind and ignored what was right in front of his face. But when Donna left him to work for Louis, it felt like something inside of him broke and opened his eyes. He realized that the feelings he had felt towards her were way too strong to ignore anymore.

That's why he needed her to be his Secret Santa recipient. He had wanted to express his feelings with something different, andt once he overheard Donna's remark about him being a bad gift giver, his mind was set .

This was a first. It'd been a long time since he'd come to work at 7 AM. Today was different though. He had to put the envelope he was holding on Donna's desk without her noticing - hence him being at the firm first.

Walking towards his office he stops at her desk. As usual, it resembles Santa's village. He smiles. Donna was always way too crazy about holidays but when it came to Halloween and Christmas her craziness intensified tenfold.

Shaking his thoughts, he takes out the envelope from his pocket and places it on her desk before making his way to his office.

Harvey is in the middle of typing up yet another deal when he hears the echo of Donna's heels clicking as she nears her desk. Looking up he sees as she makes her way towards her desk and frowns. Smirking slightly to himself, he continues watching her expression as she spots the envelope before going back to his work.

**DAY TWO:**

Strutting down the halls towards her desk Donna could already see the bouquet sitting on her desk even before reaching it. Once she makes her way towards her desk, she puts her things down and inspects the flowers. Seeing a small card near the flowers she picks it up and reads it.

_I heard that lilies are your favorite. -Your Secret Santa_

She frowns. Who is it? Yesterday she got tickets to her favorite play and now her favorite flowers?

As much as she wanted to stick with her initial guess, today's gift was throwing her off. She was so sure that it was Louis, but there was only one person that knew what kind of flowers she liked.

_Wait. It couldn't be. No. He wouldn't._

_It can't be Harvey that's for sure._

_Then who is it?_

_Could it be Mike?_

Her mind was in overdrive.

**DAY THREE:**

It's day three and she still has no clue that it's him. This feels like his personal win. Donna "I know everything" Paulsen doesn't know one thing. It's awesome.

Today's gift was something he had a little help with. Once Rachel found out about his plans, she told him about one time she and Donna were walking down 5th Avenue and Donna spotted a pair of certain earrings in the window.

After his little chat with Rachel, he sacrificed his lunch break in favor of going to Tiffany's. He just had enough time to make his purchase and drop the blue box at home on the way back to work.

He got up extra early because he wanted to drop off the gift before trial, which took longer than he thought. _Who the hell schedules a trial first thing in the morning?_

After the trial he made his way to his office, hoping that Donna wasn't there yet.

As he neared his office, he sighed in relief as he saw her cubicle. Her coat was sitting on the back of her chair, her bag was in its usual place by her feet and on the desk there was a cup of steaming hot coffee - which meant that she just came in.

Making his way towards her he feigns surprise.

"Someone's a little late today?" He teases.

"I had an appointment Harvey." She rolls her eyes at him. "How did the trial go?" She wonders.

He scoffs. "I won. As usual." His gaze drops to the blue box sitting next to her coffee. "What's that?"

She follows his gaze and smiles slightly. "Oh that. I don't know. I haven't opened it yet."

"Then do it."

She looks at him, before sighing in defeat. "Okay."

Reaching for the box, she slowly unties the bow and opens the lid and gasps. Inside is the most beautiful pair of earrings she has seen. They're breathtaking. They're white gold and the surface is scattered with small blue sapphire diamonds.

"Wow." She's speechless.

Harvey smiles. His insides filled with pride. "Who are those from?"

"I have an idea. But I'm not too sure." She then reaches for the card.

_"You can always tell what kind of a person a man thinks you are by the earrings he gives you. I must say — the mind reels." -Your Secret Santa_

Noticing her frown, Harvey asks: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing.."

He looks at the quote before speaking again. "Who do you think it is?" _Way to fuel the fire Harvey._

"I have no idea." She sighs before continuing. "The quote screams one thing, but those earrings. Those are the exact same ones I saw when Rachel and I had a girl's night a few weeks ago."

**DAY ELEVEN:**

For the last 10 days she had received various gifts. Every day she got something different, something that reflected her personality. As much as she enjoyed those gifts, the person behind them confused her to another level.

When she was certain that it was someone, another gift came and changed her mind.

_How did they do that?_ She doesn't know. She's always the one to know everything, so this was just frustrating for her.

Seeing the wrapped up gift on her desk doesn't even phase her that much anymore, it's a daily routine at this point.

She reached for it and started to slowly peel back the paper. What she saw inside made her gasp slightly. A book. A familiar book. As she unwraps the whole thing, her face breaks into a grin that could rival Harvey's.

Seeing _Henry VI, part two_ written across the top of the book her thoughts go back to that time, a while ago, when she and Harvey went to Nougatine for breakfast on their way to work and then went for a short walk after. As they strolled through the streets of New York, she saw her favorite bookstore, so of course they had to go in and then she saw it. One of her favorite plays turned into a book.

Just the thought of that made her insides feel funny. _Could it be him?_

Looking behind her in the direction of Harvey's empty office, she frowns slightly.

_Did he do all of this? After all these years?_

Looking for a card, she starts reading after finding it.

_Turn to page 156… -Your Secret Santa_

Confused, she shifts the pages until finally landing on page 156. There's a highlighted part on this page. A small note underneath it written on a post it. Smiling she reads the familiar words first.

_"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."_

After that she reads the note next.

_For years that quote was a part of your life, and you still work at a law firm... You really are something else, Paulsen.. -Your Secret Santa_

**DAY TWELVE:**

These past twelve days have been simultaneously the best and most stressful days of his life. Having been the one to throw Donna off her game was great, but stressful in a sense that he had to be very careful with each step that he took because that woman was worse than a lie detector. She always knew everything. So, being able to surprise her in any way was a once in a lifetime opportunity and he enjoyed every second of it.

He enjoyed seeing the confusion and curiosity cross her face whenever she saw something unfamiliar occupying her desk. He especially loved seeing the smile on her face when she read those little notes he left.

Whenever she smiled, her whole face lit up and her eyes twinkled, which made his insides burn with affection and pride.

For years Harvey had been fighting with himself. Trying to understand his feelings towards Donna, yet not accessing them because she had that rule and he wanted to respect that.

That was also one of the reasons why he couldn't muster up the courage to say what he wanted which resulted in her leaving him.

He didn't see it at first, but their separation made him realize some things.

He realized what a fool he had been for the last 12 years because those feelings that he tried to ignore didn't go anywhere.

He was in love with Donna Paulsen.

And once the time came, he knew that he wanted to express his feelings with this Secret Santa gift exchange because Harvey knew Donna. And he knew that she wouldn't believe him if he did something small.

Today's gonna be good. Harvey thinks as he sees Donna walking back from her lunch break.

He didn't miss the disappointed look on her face this morning when she came to work and saw nothing on her desk. He wanted to change things up since it was her birthday today and that's why he put her present on her desk while she went to lunch.

Watching her walk towards her desk, he sees the confused look on her face as she spots the small blue package with a white bow wrapped around it. For a brief second she looks up in the direction of Harvey's office, and he tries hard to not grin at her.

Seeing his face she frowns and goes back to the task at hand.

Before opening the present, she grabs a hold of the card and reads the familiar handwriting.

_Happy birthday. :) -Harvey_

Opening up the package, the first thing she sees is another note. Rolling her eyes, she picks it up.

_13th charm for your collection.._

Putting the note aside, her gaze shifts back to the blue box. After opening it, she becomes speechless

There, inside the box, lies a small charm in the shape of a can opener.

Seeing Donna's expression, Harvey stands up and makes his way towards her desk.

"Do you like it?"

"Harvey." she pauses, trying to find the right words. "It's beautiful. How?"

She doesn't even have to ask the full question before he answers. "A magician never reveals his tricks Donna." She rolls her eyes. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you Harvey."

**DAY THIRTEEN:**

Yesterday was Donna's birthday. Ever since she was a kid she loved this time of the year. Not only for the presents and the food, but for the time she spent with family and friends. She just loved being surrounded by them. She spent her birthday with her friends and then went home for the holidays to be with her family.

It wasn't a surprise that her birthday this year was not different.

Ever since the beginning of their friendship, she always had a sleepover with Rachel the night before her birthday. They talked about everything, drank a few glasses of wine and watched some movies and then the next day they would go to work.

Which brings her here, on her way to her cubicle.

As she neared her work space, she began to wonder about today's gift. What will it be? But most of all who is it from?

Her mind was too occupied with thoughts that she didn't even realize that she was already at her desk.

Setting down her bag and putting her coat on her chair, she looked around her desk. Seeing nothing she frowned._ That's weird._

_Did they forget?_

Shaking her head, she went to work.

Lunch was great. She spent her lunch break in Rachel's office catching up.  
After finishing, she went back to her cubicle.

On her way there, she saw another blue box. _What was it with this Secret Santa and Tiffany's?_

At least that gave her some advantage in somewhat knowing who it was, because only two people knew her love for Tiffany's. But there was only one who knew that her favorite movie was Breakfast at Tiffany's. And judging by some of the notes, it had to be him. Right?

Tracing her fingers through the velvet bow, she slowly reaches for the note attached to it.

_This reminded me of you. - Your Secret Santa_

Curious, Donna unwrapped the bow and pulled down the lid. Whatever she thought was in the box, she didn't expect to be this. A beautiful necklace that perfectly matched the earrings she got earlier in the week. It had a small pendant covered in matching blue sapphire diamonds.

"Wow" That's all she manages to get out because the necklace is perfect. She never saw something unique like this.

Noticing the note attached to the necklace, she carefully untangled it and started reading it..

_Even after all these years, I will always take a bullet for you, too._

This note was different from the others. It was handwritten. It wasn't signed, but she knew who it was. How could she not, when she spent 13 years working for him?

Before she had a chance to turn around, she felt his presence behind her.

"I know you're there Harvey."

"So, have you figured out who your Secret Santa is?" He's nonchalant about this.

Turning around she looks at him. He's smirking now. Deciding to toy a little with him, she replies: "Yes. It's obviously Rachel."

His gobsmacked expression makes it really hard for her to not burst into laughter.

She can only hold out a few seconds before she cracks.

"You should've seen your face!" She's laughing now. "Do you think that Rachel would know what I told you back in the DA's office?" She raises her eyebrow as if to challenge him.

Before he has a chance to interrupt, she has to ask: "Why did you do all of this?"

"Because.."

_Is he finally?_

"Why?" Donna asks, prompting him to finally say something.

Harvey tilts his head slightly to the right, before answering. "You know why, Donna."

Her blood boils. _Not this again._ "Really?" her voice becomes louder. "This again?"

"You know what? Forget it." He makes his way to his office. Donna is frustrated and angry. Before she has a chance to register what's happening, she follows him - slamming doors in the process.

She's standing there, in the middle of his office, looking at him expectantly. He's staring right back at her.

"What do you want Donna?

She huffs. "Really? That's what you're going with?" she pauses, expecting an answer, but not getting anything. As usual.

"What do you expect me to say Donna?"

"I don't know. But it sure as hell isn't you implying something and then leaving."

"But that.."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence because I'm tired of all the bulshit. Why can't you, for once in your life, tell me exactly what you mean? Or is that too much to ask?"

"You know I love you, Donna."

"Love me how?" She's desperate at this point.

Harvey doesn't answer which makes Donna roll her eyes at him.

"See. You can't say it because you're a coward." She looks at him. "Because-"

"Because I fucking loved you for thirteen goddamn years.."

"But.."

"Yes, Donna. I love you. For years I have loved you, but I couldn't do anything about it because of that rule. As much as I despised it, I had to respect it. But for thirteen years I have been here, waiting for you to waive that fucking rule because you're the most amazing woman I have ever met and I would be fucking crazy to let you go again."

"Why now?" She asks, her voice hopeful.

"Because last year has taught me that I can't live without you." Her breath gets caught in her throat for a second. " Ever since I met you, I knew that you would have an impact on my life." His voice softens. "I just didn't know that I would be falling for you in the meantime."

"Harvey." There she goes again with that soft voice she reserved only for him. It's crazy how this man before her can make her mad as hell for a moment and then melt into a puddle in the next.

"I'm sorry, Donna. For everything that I have put you through. I've been an idiot.."

"Don't I know it?" She teases.

"Stop it!"

They both chuckle.

"Seriously Harvey, what prompted you to do all of this, this year?" She's curious.

"I was sick of pretending that I don't feel anything. And I wanted to find a way to tell you. So, what better way is there than Secret Santa?" He comes closer to her and leans in, whispering to her ear: "I know how much you love grand gestures and holidays."

"That I do." She smiles. "Want to know what I love more?"

"What?"

"You. You fool." Not even waiting for his response, she leans in and kisses him - catching him slightly off guard.

It might have taken a second, but when her fingers wound up in his hair, on the back of his head, it relaxed him. So much so, that he put his arms around her and pulled her closer to his body.

What started as an innocent kiss, quickly progressed into one that had all the years of pain and yearning behind it.

As if realizing where they were, Harvey pulled away first.

"So?"

"So what?" She's still breathless.

Putting away the strand of hair behind her ear, Harvey smiles. "I love you Donna."

_Finally. After years of unresolved feelings he said it._ "I don't know Harvey. It might be too late." She can't help it. Teasing him is her favorite past time.

He furrows his brows at her. She chuckles. Kissing him briefly, she replies: "I love you too."  
They kiss again.

Not wanting to break their closeness, Harvey leans his head on her shoulder. "You're my Christmas miracle Donna."


End file.
